Athena, redux

I’m scheduled to teach a class on my Athena entrelac neck warmer next Wednesday evening at Twisted. I designed this cowl as a Christmas gift for my friend Carole in 2008.

The original was knit with Crystal Palace Taos, a lofty worsted weight wool with a very gradual color shift. Perfect for entrelac! And it’s like wearing a cloud. Twisted isn’t going to be carrying Taos any more (although it still exists out there), so I knit up a shop sample in Crystal Palace Mochi Plus, an aran weight 80/20 merino/nylon blend.

Mochi Plus also has a very gradual color shift. It’s a single ply yarn. It feels different than the Taos in that it denser and heavier. It’s also very soft. And it knits up gorgeously in entrelac, too.

If you’re local and interested in the class, contact Twisted to register!

Another cool thing going on at Twisted? The new Socks are for Suckers Club. This club will feature patterns for shawlettes, scarves and cowls made from sock yarn. It pairs an indie dyer with a Pacific Northwest designer six times over the course of a year, beginning in March next year. Perfect! I love sock yarns, but don’t knit socks with fingering weight yarn because I have to go down to size zero needles to get gauge, and that doesn’t make me happy. I’ll be interested to see what fun things come out of this club.

The universe is conspiring against me! Every time I manage to make myself forget about that club, somebody else brings it up. Which is not A Good Thing, considering how much sock yarn and patterns I already have. You’re killing me here!

That yarn is perfect for entrelac! I was considering my Lady Eleanor stole this morning. It’s been in the to-be-frogged pile for months, but maybe I’ll finish the fringe on it and bring it to work for chilly afternoons, or gift it. I’d really hate to frog all that knitting!

How did you like working with the Mochi Plus? I tried doing a sock in the Mini Mochi, and it was such a pain in the arse! That single ply just didn’t want to cooperate with my needles at all. I ripped. Love the colors, but the yarn just didn’t do it for me. 😦

The Mochi Plus was nice to work with, but I didn’t have issues with the Mini Mochi, either. I was working the Mini on a pretty big needle, though, 5 or 6? I did find the Mochi Plus to be almost “unreal” feeling because it’s so dense, being a single. It felt like animal pelt, or something. Just not fluffy. But really soft.

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